Political colours are colours used to represent a political party, either officially or unofficially. Parties in different countries with similar ideologies tend to use similar colours. For example, the colour red symbolises left-wing ideologies (c.f.Red Flag, Red Army, Red Scare). However, the political associations of a given colour vary from country to country; for example, red is also the colour associated with the conservativeRepublican Party in the United States.

In the United States, since the year 2000, the mass media have associated blue with the Democratic Party, the dominant center-left party. In 2010, the party unveiled a blue official logo.[1] (See Red states and blue states.) In the United States, blue is also often associated with organized labor, since it represents "blue collar" workers (see, for instance, the Blue-green alliance).

Brown has been associated with Nazism, because the Sturmabteilung (SA) were called "brownshirts." In Europe and elsewhere, the colour brown is sometimes used to refer to fascists in general.[citation needed]

Buff was the colour of the Whig faction in British politics from the early 18th century until the middle of the 19th century. As such it is sometimes used to represent the current political left (in opposition to blue, which represented the Tories and then the Conservatives and political right.)

Grey is sometimes used by parties that represent the interests of pensioners and senior citizens, such as "The Greys" in Germany. It can also be used to refer to reactionary movements, due to its association with the Confederate States of America.

Orange is the traditional colour of the Christian democrats, and it can also represent various kinds of populist parties. Such is the case in Austria, Germany, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Turkey.

In Canada, orange is the colour of the New Democratic Party (NDP), a social-democratic party. Most social-democratic parties around the world use red or pink, but in Canada the colour red was already long associated with the Liberals when the NDP was founded.

In Ukraine, orange was the colour of liberal groups that participated in the "Orange Revolution". This gave the color orange a certain association with radical anti-authoritarian politics in some countries, and it has been used as such by groups and organizations in the Middle East – for example in Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Bahrain and Israel.

In the United Kingdom, orange was the color of the historical Liberal Party. The contemporary successors to the Liberals - the Liberal Democrats - use orange, predominantly in Scotland where the SNP use yellow.

Orange is often used to represent the mutualist current in anarchist politics, as a middle ground between pro-market currents such as anarcho-capitalism (associated with the color yellow of liberalism) and anti-market currents such as anarcho-syndicalism and anarcho-communism (associated with the color red of communism and socialism).

Pink is sometimes used by Social Democrats, such as in France and Portugal. The more traditional colour of social democracy is red (because social democracy is descended from the democratic socialist movement), but some countries have large social-democratic parties alongside large socialist or communist parties, so that it would be confusing for them all to use red. In such cases, social democrats are usually the ones who give up red in favor of a different color. Pink is often chosen because it is seen as a softer, less aggressive version of red, in the same way that social democracy is more centrist and less militant than socialism.

In some European nations and the United States, pink is associated with homosexuality and the pink flag is used as a symbol in support of civil rights for LGBT people. This goes back to the Nazi German policy of assigning pink triangles to homosexual prisoners.

Purple is the most prominent colour that is not traditionally connected to any major ideology. As such, it is sometimes used to represent a mix of different ideologies, or new protest movements that are critical of all previously-existing parties.

In Italy, purple has been adopted by anti-Silvio Berlusconi protesters (see Purple people) as an alternative from other colours and political parties.

In the United Kingdom purple is associated with Euroskepticism, being the official colours of the UK Independence Party (along with yellow) and Veritas.

Purple is also unofficially used in the United States to denote a "swing state" (i.e., one contested frequently between the Republican Party, whose unofficial color is red, and the Democratic Party, whose unofficial color is blue.) Purple is also used by centrists to represent a combination of beliefs belonging to the Republicans (red) and the Democrats (blue) (see above). It has also been used to reference Purple America, a term used in contrast to "blue" or "red", noting the electoral differences nationwide are observed more on discrepancies instead of unity. (See Red states and blue states.)

Red is traditionally associated with socialism and communism. The oldest symbol of socialism (and, by extension, communism) is the Red Flag, which dates back to the French Revolution in the 18th century and the revolutions of 1848. The colour red was chosen to represent the blood of the workers who died in the struggle against capitalism. All major socialist and communist alliances and organisations – including the First, Second, and Third Internationals – used red as their official colour. The association between the colour red and communism is particularly strong. Communists use red much more often and more extensively than other ideologies use their respective traditional colors.

In Europe and Latin America, red is also associated with parties of social democracy, and often their allies within the labor movement. Sometimes these parties use pink instead, as a "moderate" colour instead of the more "radical" red.

In the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, red is also the colour of the labor movement and the Labour (spelled 'Labor' in Australia) Parties in those countries.

In India, saffron is traditionally associated with Hinduism, Hindutva and the Hindu nationalist movement.[6] Saffron was chosen because in Hindu Sanatana Dharma, the deep saffron color is associated with sacrifice, religious abstinence, quest for light and salvation. Saffron or "Bhagwa" is the most sacred color for the Hindus and is often worn by Sanyasis who have left their home in search of the ultimate truth.

White is today mainly linked to pacifism (as in the surrender flag) and in politics of the United Kingdom to independent politicians such as Martin Bell.

Historically, it was associated with support for absolute monarchy, starting with the supporters of the Bourbon dynasty of France, because it was the dynasty's color. Later it was used by the Czarist Whites who fought against the communist "Reds" in the Russian Civil War, because the Russian "Whites" had similar goals to the French "Whites" of a century earlier.

Because of its use by anti-communist forces in Russia, the color white came to be associated in the 20th century with many different anti-communist and counter-revolutionary groups, even those that did not support absolute monarchy (for example, the Finnish "Whites" who fought against the socialist "Reds" in the civil war following the independence of Finland). In some revolutions, red is used to represent the revolutionaries and white is used to represent the supporters of the old order, regardless of the ideologies or goals of the two sides.

In Italy a red cross on a white shield (scudo crociato) is the emblem of Catholic parties, from the historical Christian Democracy party.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban reversed the Islamist schema, using black shahada on a white background (symbol of purity).

In Singapore, white is the color associated with the People's Action Party, the party that has been in power, and dominating the Parliament, since the country's independence.

In this map of the 2012 U.S. Presidential election results the states are color-coded by the political color of the party whose candidate won their electoral college votes. The political meanings of red and blue in the United States are different from their meanings in most of the world.

In South Korea, the ruling conservative party Saenuri Party (New Frontier Party) uses red as its color, even though red is considered a leftist color in Korea. In this case it's a kind of political strategy, to emphasize change and evolution.

Some of the established political parties use or have used different color variations in certain localities. The traditional color of the Penrith and the Border Conservatives was yellow, rather than dark blue. The traditional color of the Warwickshire Liberals was green, rather than orange.

In the United States the two major political parties use the national colors – red, white, and blue. Historically, the only common situation in which it has been necessary to assign a single color to a party has been in the production of political maps in graphical displays of election results. In such cases, there had been no consistent association of particular parties with particular colors. In the weeks following the 2000 election, however, there arose the terminology of red states and blue states, in which the conservative Republican Party was associated with red and the liberal Democratic Party with blue. Political observers latched on to this association, which resulted from the use of red for Republican victories and blue for Democratic victories on the display map of a television network. In 2004, the association was mostly kept. As of November 2012, maps for presidential elections produced by the U.S. government also use blue for Democrats and red for Republicans.[7] In September 2010, the Democratic Party officially adopted an all-blue logo.[1] Around the same time, the official Republican website began using a red logo.

This association has potential to confuse foreign observers in that, as described above, red is traditionally a left-wing color, while blue is typically associated with right-wing politics.

There is some historical use of blue for Democrats and red for Republicans: in the late 19th century and early 20th century, Texas county election boards used color-coding to help Spanish speakers and illiterates identify the parties,[8] however, this system was not applied consistently in Texas and was not picked up on a national level; for instance, in 1888, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison used maps that coded blue for the Republicans, the color Harrison perceived to represent the Union and "Lincoln's Party" and red for the Democrats.[9]